Dr. Bhanu Chauhan's research bridges traditional disciplines covering several aspects of synthetic polymer, inorganic, and materials chemistry. An Assistant Professor of Chemistry at The Graduate Center and the College of Staten Island (CSI), Dr. Chauhan received a grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology to devise methodologies for tailoring flexible coil-like inorganic polymers with conjugated rods like organic ligands that can self-assemble into a variety of supramolecular structures with unique optical and electronic properties. This research provides a unique opportunity to gauge the supramolecular structures with different functionalities in order to achieve desired physical and optical properties of molecular materials.
The second focus of Professor Chauhan's research is in the area of nanochemistry and nanotechnology. Support for this research comes from GE-Silicones, an NSF instrumentation grant, a CUNY-Collaborative Grant, two PSC-CUNY grants, and a start up grant from CSI. The major purpose of this research is to devise strategies to generate, stabilize, and utilize active nano-sized metals and semiconductor particles. Such active nanoparticles are of interest due to their potential applications in catalysis, optoelectronic devices, and ultrasensitive biological sensors. This area of research has been identified as "one of the most exciting challenges of modern chemistry." Professor Chauhan's group is in quest of devising strategies for more efficient catalytic systems that combine the advantages of both homogeneous (catalyst modulation) and heterogeneous (catalyst recycling) catalysis. His preliminary results in this area were published as a highlight of 2003 in a special volume of Journal of Organometallic Chemistry "What is New in Silicon Chemistry in 2003" and in the Journal of American Chemical Society. He applies nanochemistry concepts to prepare "soluble" analogues of heterogeneous catalysts in the form of metal nanoclusters. Such tailor-made metal nanoclusters prepared in his lab show an unparalleled combination of reactivity, selectivity, and recyclability as catalyst. Professor Chauhan is also interested in developing low temperature routes employing molecular precursors to various inorganic materials, including both non-oxides and complex oxides, that are of broad interest in many areas of technology.
Professor Chauhan's group is also involved in generating the polymeric supports as targeted drug delivery vehicles. The support for this research comes from Merck-AAAS Grant, and a CSI Presidential Award. Providing control over the drug delivery can be the most important factor at times when traditional oral or injectable drug formulations cannot be used. These include situations requiring the slow release of water-soluble drugs, the fast release of low-solubility drugs, drug delivery to specific sites, drug delivery using nano-particulate systems, delivery of two or more agents with the same formulation, and systems based on carriers that can dissolve or degrade and be readily eliminated. His group is targeting synthetic strategies to design ideal drug delivery systems, which are inert, biocompatible, mechanically strong, capable of achieving high drug loading, safe from accidental release, and easy to fabricate and sterilize.